dweller with long matted hair, sitting in the midst
of the circle of weeping animals. Gunadhya then
told the king the curse and the circumstances that
caused the great story to descend to Earth. The
king then knew that Gunadhya was a celestial. He
begged him for the full story, but, unfortunately,
only one-seventh remained. The king took the
great story, called the Brihatkatha, and went to his
palace. He had the work translated into Sanskrit,
and that is how the story indeed became famous
throughout the world.
Further reading: Sarla Khosla, Brhatkatha and Its Con-
tributions (Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, 2003); S. N.
Prasad, Studies in Gunadhya (Varanasi: Chaukhambha
Orientalia, 1977); Arshia Sattar, trans., Tales from the
Kathasaritsagara (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1994).
Guptas (320–550 C.E.)
The Guptas were a powerful dynasty who ruled
most of North India early in the Common Era.
They patronized Jains (see JAINISM) and Buddhists
(see BUDDHA) as well as Hindus. The famous Bud-
dhist monastic university of Nalanda (a site now
in western Pakistan) was founded by the Gupta
kings and associates. Other Buddhist sites such as
Bodh Gaya and Sanchi also benefited from Gupta
attention and largesse.
The Gupta rulers were known for their adher-
ence to traditional VEDIC norms in ritual and
conduct. While patrons of the heterodox Bud-
dhists and Jains, they were devotionally attached
to VISHNU and remained Hindus by faith. Chandra
Gupta I (320–34 C.E.) began the dynasty by con-
solidating power in the eastern Gangetic heart-
land. His successor, Sumudra Gupta (355–76 C.E.),
made Pataliputra (now Patna) the center of a great
empire reaching from Assam in the east to the Pun-
jab in the west. He took tribute from other kings
in the west, notably those of Rajasthan, and con-
quered much of the eastern Indian coastline down
to KANCHIPURAM. Though he withdrew his armies,
he remained overlord of southeastern India.
Chandra Gupta II (c. 376–415 C.E.) defeated
the western Shaka armies and extended the rule
of the empire up to the Indus River, controlling
everything to the east. Chandra Gupta II ushered
in a new era of cultural magnificence, becoming
patron to the great poet KALIDASA and other poets
and scholars. He may have had the title Vikra-
maditya cited by Kalidasa. During his reign the
Chinese traveler Fa-shien, a Buddhist, traveled to
India to record the wonders of the land. Chandra
Gupta’s son, Kumara Gupta I (c. 415–54), was
killed in battles defending western India as fierce
invaders, the Central Asians known as Hunas,
challenged Gupta rule there. Kumara Gupta was
known for his worship of SHIVA. Skanda Gupta
(c. 455–67) took power upon Kumara’s death.
He fended off the invaders, but Gupta power had
begun to weaken. The rest of Gupta rule was
spent in fending off attacks from the west. The
empire succumbed completely when it lost con-
trol of Bengal in 550 C.E.Further reading: Ashvini Agrawal, Rise and Fall of the
Imperial Guptas (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1989);
A. L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, 3d rev. ed.
(Calcutta: Rupa, 1997); Kathryn Hinds, India’s Gupta
Dynasty (New York: Benchmark Books, 1996).guru
The SANSKRIT word guru (“weighty” or “heavy” or
“father”) is said to derive from gu (the darkness
of ignorance) and ru (driving away)—thus, “the
one who drives away the darkness of ignorance.”
The notion of the guru began in VEDIC times; a
student would live with a master for 12 years to
acquire the Vedic learning. He treated the guru as
his father and served his household as well. Today,
a guru is a person’s spiritual father, who is entitled
to special deference, as are his wife and daughter.
The guru is a spiritual guide. Almost all tra-
ditions understand that spiritual progress and
liberation from birth and rebirth cannot occur
without the aid of a guru. In many contemporaryguru 173 J